The White House has been stormed.

international | worker & community struggles and protests | other press Thursday March 24, 2005 15:15 by -

(There are several)

the main buildings of Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek have been taken by opponents to the regime there.

Kyrgystanis very old fashioned, and thus occupying the presidential palace, the TV station the radio station and a handful of other ministries is really enough to say quite effectively "you're in charge now".

ah go on!

Accordingly the Kyrgyzi opposition are saying "they're in charge".

The Russians "bless em" have reported at 11h33 their time that both military and police had left their compounds before the kyrgyzi-okupes turned up.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1861873&PageNum=0

they say :-
Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev is currently at his country residence, guarded by a commando unit, reliable sources in the Interior Ministry have said.

According to the same sources, representatives from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have arrived there for talks. They had flown in to Bishkek earlier in the capacity of mediators.

(that's us)

Mr Alojz Peterle is the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office for participating States in Central Asia and has safely arrived in Kyrgyzstan a little while ago.

The OSC€ say president (not in charge anymore) Askar Akayev is not on OSC€ premises. Some nasty yankee dixie types made that up and its a big fib. Though he did chat with the man as arranged this morning and members of the opposition and is voicing "our concern" and reminding "all sides to refrain from violence and to start a dialogue as quickly as possible."
http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?id=4807

"nope he's not here"-
http://www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?id=4808

if you want more info on this from the OSC€ give Mr Richard Murphy (nigerian name) a call-
OSCE Spokesperson/Head of Press and Public Information
OSCE Chairman-in-Office
Kaerntner Ring 5-7
1010, Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43 1 514 36 180
+43 664 548 53 89 (mobile)
ask him - ¿where is Askar Akayev? and add
"happy easter" "what can i do to help" & "¿where is Kyrgyzstan?"

I'll help you out there.

Kyrgyzstan is a former Soviet republic in mid Asia it sits between China (mostly desert bit of China had two earthquakes in the last month at over 6.1 on the richter scale) and Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. maybe you're old fashioned-
in which case Kyrgyzstan is about a finger's width from Mongolia on the world map.

Area: 198,999 sq km (76,834 sq mi)
Population: 5,081,429
Capital: Bishkek 589,000
missing President: Askar Akayevich Akayev
Religion: Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%
Life Expectancy: 67.84 years
GDP per capita: $1,600

and guess what George Soros is out there.
you get everywhere don't you George.
give him a call and ask ¿where is Askar?

Soros Foundation - Kyrgyzstan
55A, Logvinenko St.
Bishkek, 720040
Kyrgyzstan
Phone: (996 312) 66 34 75, 66 34
Fax: (996 312) 66 34 48
Email: office@soros.kg
Executive Director: Mr. Medet Tiulegenov
Website: http://www.soros.kg/

bit by bit storming details (they started out with 7000 people doing a bit of a mob thing with sticks and stones)- and just after the newly appointed minister for justice had asked them to behave themselves like little Irish children would. "no storming" he said quite clearly.

the swiss have been keeping an eye on it all-
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5625158
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5625250
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5625457
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5625689
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5625789
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5626135

so clearly that Mr Soros' crew think that was "spin" aimed at making us in Europe support him over the "people's crew" in the southern provinces of Jalal-Abad and Osh. Self-styled people’s power councils have also been established in sections of Talas and Naryn provinces (in the north). Local law-enforcement bodies, in many cases, have declared their allegiance to the people’s power councils.

George has got it all for you-
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav032305.shtml
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav032105.shtml

Steve Gutterman is in Bishkek for Associated press, and between looking at the stars, is busy sending off copy through the satelite phone to all the newspapers.
Here's the bit he just sold to the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4888922,00.html

so there you go.
Now you know how this goes,
some people will take the credit.
the usual suspects are - George Bush who claims every group of people on the street as a victory for liberty, and the others are the SP.
But before they jump to conclusions, it might be worth considering that Kyrgyzstan is a place full of horrible pollution and would you believe it, fundamentalists of the religious variety. And for various reasons we won't go into now, there aren't many life support machines or washing machines. The chinese and russians might just bring forward their joint military exercises scheduled in the area for June. Coz that will show it doesn't matter who's in charge.
¿won't it?